Refusing to comply with the NBA’s Covid vaccine mandate cost more than $ 100 million and a four-year contract extension, Brooklyn Nets point guard Kyrie Irving explained Monday.
“I gave up four years, $ 100 and something million to decide not to be vaccinated and that was the decision,” Irving told reporters on Nets media day, adding that he had to deal with the severity of the disease. his decision.
“[Get this] contracted, vaccinated or unvaccinated and there is a level of uncertainty about your future, if you will be in this league, if you will be part of this team, so I had to face that real life circumstance of losing my job for this decision ”.
Irving era put aside from his squad during home games throughout the 2021 season after famously refusing to join the New York City mRNA jab experimental mandate.
As a result, his contract has remained dormant and he says he feels he has been given “an ultimatum” between getting the jab and being able to play.
“We must have figured it all out before last year’s training camp,” he told reporters. “And it just didn’t happen because of the state I’m vaccinated in, not vaccinated in. So, I got their point and had to live with it. It was a hard pill to swallow, honestly.
“On a serious note, I felt like I was forced to give an ultimatum as to whether or not I had a contract, whether or not I could be on the team or be around the team, regardless of whether I was vaccinated or not. So, again the difficult conversations that have been had, ”she said.
In a statement a ESPN, Brooklyn Nets CEO Sean Marks challenged Irving’s point of view, saying, “There is no ultimatum being given here… Again, go back to wanting people who are trustworthy, people who are here and responsible. All of us: staff, players, coaches, and so on. It’s not giving someone an ultimatum to get a vaccine. It is a completely personal choice. I’m by Kyrie’s side. I think if he wants, he made that choice. This is completely his prerogative ”.
Irving added that his unpopular decision “has become a stigma in my career,” but that he was not simply meant to be a sacrificial lamb for the Covid vaccine movement; she just wanted to represent something bigger than him.
“I understand all the points of the Nets,” Irving told the media. “And I respected and honored that, and I didn’t appreciate the fact that not being vaccinated suddenly became a stigma in my career that I don’t want to play, or am willing to give everything to be a voice for the voiceless. And… on which I will stay here and I will say that, that was not the only intent I had, it was to be the voice of the voiceless, it was to stand on something that would be bigger than me ”.
In March, New York Mayor Eric Adams (D) announced the city would expand the vaccine mandate exemption for athletes and performers, finally allowing Irving to join his team on the pitch.
The press conference comes when Irving made headlines earlier this month sharing a flashback video on social media by Infowars founder Alex Jones prophetic warning about the tyrannical New World Order.
Kyrie Irving just released a video clip titled “Never Forget – Alex Jones tried to warn us” with Jones stating in 2002 that a “New World Order” would release “plagues on us …” pic.twitter.com/sz2Ps7Fbrn
— Tommy Beer (@TommyBeer) September 15, 2022
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